A salt extraction operation needed to transfer rapidly from an onshore to an offshore web site provided by 5 km of pipework. The company turned to flow management partner Celeros to help meet the unique circumstances encountered at the new salt nicely.
Overview of the two new water injection pumps for single and parallel operation, following installation and commissioning at the Frisia Zout BV web site.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been introduced on-line forward of schedule, preventing a potential halt in manufacturing when the existing onshore nicely developed issues. Frisia Zout BV, part of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH, was in a position to overcome the time and technical challenges of accelerating the venture by working in partnership with Celeros Flow Technology (Celeros FT).
The bulk of the salt produced by Frisia Zout BV goes unfastened to a forty,000-tonne storage facility for supply in bulk to business. The remainder is packed in smaller quantities to be used in food production or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted beneath licence from the Dutch authorities. The present borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory modifications, the new licence would only permit extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a new borehole and related plant was required at the Frisia Zout BV site.
New challenges
K+S started planning for a model new pump building in 2017, and development began in April 2020 with the goal of bringing it onstream before the prevailing extraction licence expired on the finish of 2021. However, unexpected difficulties arose with the existing onshore nicely, which meant that production would stop before anticipated. To bridge the gap, Frisia Zout BV began bringing in salt water by tanker, but this was an costly various. As a outcome, it grew to become imperative to deliver the new offshore well onstream as soon as attainable.
Time pressures were not the one challenges the corporate confronted. Due to the natural geology, the extraction path to the brand new offshore useful resource was not a straight bore: it modified course twice before reaching the salt deposits. In fact, the new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells in the world and has 5 km of pipework past the water injection pumps. As a outcome, the process water must be pumped in at high strain (250 barg) and at a excessive flow rate (450 m3/h) to extract the quantity of salt required, making the selection of pumps crucial to success.
Total resolution
Frisia Zout BV has an extended and established relationship with Celeros FT via the ClydeUnion Pumps brand, primarily based not only on the high quality of ITS OEM pumps but in addition on its ability to reply rapidly to any operational points. The firm turned to its trusted move control companion once again for assist in assembly the unique circumstances encountered at the new salt properly.
Celeros FT brand ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the flow requirements for the water injection course of at the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps could be made to satisfy necessities. เกจวัดแรงดัน10bar had been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a outcome of they might be operating in a salt-laden environment. Celeros FT manufactured, supplied, put in and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the brand new offshore salt cavern, assembly uncommon requirements for high stress and excessive circulate charges. In addition, they supported Frisia Zout BV in bringing an older pump back into service as a spare: assessing it and upgrading the casing to ensure it met the new duty necessities.
Jouk Riemer, project manager for Frisia Zout BV, explained: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps prior to now and located that their multistage centrifugal design gives better efficiency, compared to plunger pumps, for this software. We wished to make use of them once more for the new project. The Celeros FT staff responded to the challenges magnificently, using their engineering experience to determine the most effective answer to meet the pressure and flow rates we required, delivering the pump skids to fulfill the new development schedule and serving to us hold the project on observe.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant came on-line in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the excessive pressure and flow rates required for the applying and might run in parallel, which has improved productivity. The availability of a spare pump provides extra confidence that manufacturing downtime will be minimal. The company’s ability to fulfill the accelerated venture deadline is especially spectacular when you suppose about that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting provides of materials and parts. The Celeros FT team worked hard to ensure that this did not have any impact on their customer.
Celeros FT also offered specialist engineering expertise throughout the installation and commissioning part and can continue to make sure the pumps function satisfactorily throughout the plant’s 15-year lifespan, although the pump constructing could also be required to serve multiple properly in future as demand for K+S excessive purity salt continues to develop. Easy substitute of wear components and ongoing service assist from Celeros FT will make positive that the BB3 pumps continue to meet operational parameters throughout the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer said: “The combination of prime of the range OEM equipment and practical engineering skills provided by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this project ahead of time. I’m convinced it might have taken a lot longer to get what we required from one other pump producer. The company’s responsiveness was crucial in assembly our revised deadline, decreasing prices and keeping extraction at this website viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the first offshore extraction nicely we’ve developed however it has been a largely constructive expertise due to Celeros Flow Technology. They brought invaluable engineering expertise and specialist pump data to this challenge and are a elementary a part of its success.”
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